BioWare Defends Changes to Dragon Age II, Plans to Integrate Feedback from Core FansDragon Age II was released back in March and, generally speaking, did not receive the same accolades as the first Dragon Age: Origins. The biggest complaint was that it felt like a "dumbed down" adventure to make it more accessible for the mainstream. Some also felt that the combat and environments got too repetitive, but in the end, BioWare stands by its changes. That said, the company is also listening to its fans.
Speaking with IndustryGamers recently, BioWare co-founder Dr. Ray Muzyka noted that Dragon Age II was successful in expanding the audience for the franchise, but at the same time, BioWare definitely wants to be able to satisfy its core audience that fell in love with Dragon Age: Origins.
"We also want to integrate feedback from our core fans because they’re really important to us."
"I think there was actually a tremendous number of people that came into the franchise and were delighted. So there were many people who critically thought it was wonderful, and actually a lot of old fans did as well. There’s no doubt that there was a polarization though. Maybe some of that can be attributed to some of the fans of Dragon Age: Origins who were maybe expecting a similar experience. But we actually innovated, we took a lot of risk, we were pushing the envelope on how we told the story, the gameplay, the action moments, the graphics - a lot of things were changed. And, actually, I really believe it was the right direction," Muzyka began.
"We also recognize that feedback from core fans is incredibly important, so we take that to heart. We’re listening to it. We’re commercially successful, so we actually drew a lot of new fans in, exceeded our expectations, and what we want to do in the future is make sure we integrate that feedback from our core fans, so they come along with us for the journey, as we continue to build up the Dragon Age franchise and make the next ones even bigger and better so that all of our fans are delighted and surprised. We think we can do that. We can actually take the best of breed features from the original game in Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age II and put them together; and some of the changes we made in Dragon Age II, we were proud of the team. We think they were the right changes. We wanted the team to push in that direction, but we also want to integrate feedback from our core fans because they’re really important to us. So I think there’s a nice balance that can be struck to achieve that," he added.
BioWare's not ready to officially announce Dragon Age III just yet, but it's pretty clear that the developer has plans to continue with the franchise. And part of the solution for core fans should also come via DLC, said Muzyka.
"We’re working on future projects in the Dragon Age franchise," he acknowledged. "We have some more DLC plans, that actually address some of the feedback from some of our core fans. I think that’s going to be really satisfying to fans who liked DAO and DA2. We haven’t announced Dragon Age III formally at all, but we can say we’re definitely thinking about future products. There’s some cool stuff in the works there."
